Can't Let Go
by Kanjii
Summary: They were just small things, little habits Kakashi had copied from Obito. But were they really that small? [No pairings] [Discontinued]
1. 1

Warning: Spoilers from the Kakashi Gaiden arc nn;   
Everybody fails at least once 

_There's no shame in that_

Two pictures fitted neatly into plain, wooden frames, stood next to each other on a windowsill. The somber rays cast off half-heartedly by the sun, sinking into the horizon, lit the pictures up. In each stood four people.

One could easily see the similarities between both groups. Well, obviously Kakashi was easy to spot in both pictures, though if you took expressions alone, they looked like completely different people. Had it been a complete stranger, it would've seemed odd to them that it was the _child _version who looked more mature – annoyed, perhaps, but still mature – and the adult version…well, less adult.

But child Kakashi and adult Kakashi, that didn't really count as a similarity…kind of, anyway.

The children and teachers of the pictures were what looked similar. The child Kakashi wore an expression very much like the black-haired Uchiha, Sasuke. Kakashi and Sasuke were both the geniuses of their teams. And both had very similar attitudes at the time.

And then you had Rin and Sakura. Both the only girls, both the only truly happy-looking people in the picture, aside from the teachers, of course. And they were both positioned directly in front of their teachers, and between the two boys.

The teachers both looked happy enough. Closed eyes, hands resting on the heads of the two boys in both photos, wide smiles – well, in the Fourth Hokage's case, anyway. Couldn't exactly see Kakashi's mouth behind his mask. Still, judging from the what you could see of the silver-haired jounin's face, it seemed that he was probably grinning underneath his mask.

And then…

Spiky hair. Different colors, black and yellow, but very similar in shape. Glares directed towards the 'geniuses' of both groups. Large, wide collars.

So very similar.

Dropouts.

Losers.

Dead lasts.

Crybabies.

So very painfully similar.

Time and time again, Kakashi had to look hard at Naruto, very hard. Concentrate on the outlandish orange outfit. The vivid yellow hair. The absence of goggles. The blue eyes. Everything that made Naruto different from Obito. Time and time again, Kakashi had to stare hard at the boy and remind himself over and over again…

_He's not Obito. _

_He's not Obito._

But, oh, they were so painfully similar.

And then back to the subject of Uchiha Obito.

Kakashi had realized that over the years, he'd developed little habits. Well…kind of little. Habits that Obito had. He'd adopted those habits as his own, as if to tell himself that yes, there once _was _a Uchiha Obito, although it seemed that by now, the name entered no mind other than Kakashi's own.

Little habits. Like always being late. Coming up with lame excuses and uttering them anyway, although it was obvious that they wouldn't be believed.

And then there was the one big thing that Obito had drilled into Kakashi's mind. Teamwork. Friendship.

Although perhaps the rules did state otherwise, friends were more important than missions. Kakashi had learned that too late, and now, he wasn't going to make the same mistake again. He was going to make sure that Team 7 knew that friends took number one importance.

"Kakashi! Kakashi!"

Kakashi purposely ignored the very eager and enthusiastic and slightly annoyingly hyper orange-clad genin. He did, however, notice that in his state of eagerness that Naruto had left out the 'sensei'.

There was silence, which was slightly unnerving. Naruto was almost never silent. Of course, the silence didn't last very long.

"KAKASHIKAKASHIKAKASHIKAKASHI–" Naruto paused a moment, drawing in breath. Then, almost as an afterthought, "-SENSEI!"

The jounin finally responded. Pulling himself away from Icha Icha Paradise, he looked up at Naruto and asked, "Yes?"

"Guess what?"

Kakashi stayed silent, waiting for Naruto to go on. However, Naruto obviously expected some sort of reply so he stayed silent too, though it was obvious from all the jumping up-and-down he was doing that he was about to explode and blurt out what he'd wanted to say.

Amused, Kakashi watched Naruto hop impatiently, and when it seemed that the boy was about to erupt, he asked, "What?"

Naruto broke into a large grin. He leaned closer and put on a solemn, ominous looking face. "I saw…" He leaned in even closer so that his mouth was about an inch away from Kakashi's ear and didn't go on.

Patiently, Kakashi waited.

"…A GHOST!" Naruto screeched gleefully right into Kakashi's ear, jumping back afterwards and grinning triumphantly.

_What was the meaning of that? _Kakashi vaguely wondered as he waited for his brain to stop vibrating. Geez, Naruto was loud.

"Ah, really?" Kakashi asked not sounding interested at all. He'd just reached an extremely…interesting…chapter of Icha Icha Paradise and wanted the genin to go away so he could continue enjoying his book.

"Are you listening?" Naruto demanded, squinting and scowling at his teacher.

"Yeah," Kakashi automatically responded.

"No you're not!" Naruto observed, scowling even more. He finally noticed the book and realizing that Kakashi's mind was probably still on that, snatched at it. At exactly the right moment, Kakashi pulled the book away which caused Naruto to wildly flail his arms around in order to gain balance. He quickly pulled himself upright, crossing his arms and attempting to look nonchalant…and failing quite miserably. But he couldn't see himself, so he probably didn't know that.

As if nothing had happened, Naruto said, "So, like I said, I saw a ghost."

"Ah, really?" Kakashi repeated again, impatiently flipping back and forth through the pages of Icha Icha Paradise.

"You're not listening!"

Sighing, Kakashi came to the conclusion that unless he actually _did _listen and respond accordingly and with thought, Naruto would never go away. "Okay, now I am," he said patiently.

This satisfied his student, and Naruto continued on. "And…like I said, I saw a ghost," he said again. However, he continued on quickly. "At the memorial stone."

"Uh-huh," Kakashi said. The tone of voice that he used made Naruto squint at him again, apparently trying to figure out whether Kakashi was only answering to make it sound like he was listening or if he was actually listening. Unable to decipher anything from Kakashi's blank stare, Naruto gave up.

"It's true!" Naruto exclaimed. "I saw a ghost at the memorial stone! You believe me, right, sensei?"

Kakashi shrugged. "I dunno. You know whose ghost it was?"

"No, but I think it was a Uchiha! I mean, they had the black hair and Sharingan and everything!" The subject of Uchiha caused Naruto to go off topic and chatter on endlessly about Sasuke and what a useless idiot he was, which allowed time for Kakashi's mind to think.

Okay, Kakashi. Don't start dreaming and hoping. Not every Uchiha is Obito. And it was possible that another Uchiha had died fighting for Konoha, so there could possibly be another Uchiha on that memorial stone.

Besides, ghosts didn't exist.

"…so I really hate Sasuke. Anyway, the ghost!" Naruto finally got his mind back on track. "It was really weird, didn't look like a Uchiha at all! I mean, we have Itachi and Sasuke, who both look like they never smile and are always really serious and too cool for this world and everything. But this guy, he was weird. Not like a Uchiha at all. He's not part of the Uchiha clan but he has Sharingan anyway! He had one, too, except it was in his right eye. Maybe he was like you, Kakashi-sensei, and not actually part of the Uchiha clan! Though, he was wearing the Uchiha symbol. His left eye was closed. It looked kinda…empty, though, under the eyelid."

Kakashi, ever calm, asked, "So, what'd this Uchiha ghost look like? I mean, the rest of him, not just his expression and eyes."

"Weird!" was all Naruto said, but he quickly realized that probably wasn't the answer Kakashi was looking for and went on to describe his ghost. "Black hair, like the other Uchihas, and Sharingan…said that already. Oh, his hair was short and…well, it was like mine. A lot like mine, actually, except it was black. He was also my age…

"And he wore goggles!"

Omigar, the suspense:D

-mauled with bricks-

Okay, I'm done now. ;


	2. 2

Warning: Spoilers from the Kakashi Gaiden arc nn;

* * *

_Everybody fails at least once_

_There's no shame in that_

Kakashi was running, fast, through Konoha, as if he was being chased. Well, it _did_ look like he was being chased since Naruto following, doing his best to keep up his teacher. If Kakashi had seemed fast before, it was nothing compared to the speed that he was going at now.

Still, Naruto was doing pretty damn good.

All this wasn't a coincidence, and Kakashi knew that. The world wasn't nice enough to allow room for coincidences. He'd never described Obito to Naruto, and he somehow doubted that anyone, even Sasuke or Itachi, knew or remembered who Obito was, let alone what he looked like.

Short, spiky black hair, Sharingan in right eye, goggles…It just couldn't be a coincidence.

And it couldn't be anyone else either.

Right?

They reached the memorial stone very quickly, and Kakashi skid to a halt just in front of it, and quickly looked around.

No one.

He looked again, as Naruto arrived behind him, panting for breath. The sunshine was strong by now, and the surrounding forest cast shadows all around the place. Still, nothing in the dark shadows either. Nothing anywhere.

"He's not here anymore," Naruto observed, although Kakashi doubted that even Naruto was dim-witted enough to not realize that yes, Kakashi _knew _that the ghost was no longer there.

He ran through the possibility of Naruto making it all up. Yes, the boy was a prankster. Still, as Kakashi had thought before, Naruto's description was all too accurate to be a joke. Right?

Yes, of course, right. Kakashi was always right. He was, after all, a genius.

No coincidences in this godforsaken world of theirs.

"I know," Kakashi said, considering uncovering his Sharingan just to check. Could the Sharingan see ghosts? No, he didn't need the Sharingan. Unless Naruto was better at hiding secrets than Kakashi thought, Naruto had no Sharingan and he still saw Obito with his own two eyes.

Wait, no. Ghosts didn't exist. Naruto couldn't have seen Obito –

For what seemed to be the umpteenth time, the evil little word popped up in Kakashi's mind –

_Right?_

"Kakashi-sensei, why were you so anxious?" Naruto asked, extremely curious and unable to keep it from showing in his face.

"Ah…nothing."

He'd never known why he didn't tell the members of Team 7 about Uchiha Obito. It didn't really seem important. So what if they knew Kakashi gained his Sharingan from his friend while he was dying? It wasn't going to make Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura stronger, or make them better friends, or help them at all, really. If anything, it'd make them uncomfortable.

Talking about dead people usually wasn't a very good choice of topic for conversation.

"Did you know him?"

"Dunno," was Kakashi's vague reply.

Any other person would've seen that Kakashi was either not comfortable with the topic or simply did not want to say anything on it, and would've left it at that. But Naruto kept at it.

Naruto was working hard at putting two and two together.

…And he was getting five.

"Was he your twin? Hey, that's it, isn't it? He's your twin, and you're actually related to the Uchiha family but because you have a twin the Sharingan was split between the both of you–"

"Naruto…" Kakashi turned around, looking slightly exasperated and not showing any of the other emotions that were causing chaos within him. "Think about it. According to your description, this ghost and I don't look alike at all. And no, I am _not _related to the Uchiha family in any way aside from my Sharingan."

"Aw…" Naruto scowled. "I was sure that was the answer!"

Kakashi was hoping it'd end at that, but Naruto didn't let that happen.

"So, was he your friend? You _did _know him, right? Yeah, you did…otherwise you wouldn't have ran so quickly. He's not your twin, so he's probably not your brother…he's your friend! He has to be! Or is he your rival or enemy or something? Did you kill him and now he's coming back to haunt you?"

Naruto blinked.

He was talking to the air, which was slightly tinged with chakra smoke.

"Dammit!" Naruto swore, punching his palm. Kakashi had simply disappeared in that rather aggravating way of his. He scanned the area around him, but saw no sign of the silver-haired jounin and sighed again.

Seemed like he wasn't going to learn anything about his ghost and its relationship with Kakashi that day.

* * *

Hinata was taking a walk. Well, that was because there wasn't much else to do, really. Her father was sparring with Neji, she couldn't find Shino and Kiba – besides, if she did, how would that help? She was too shy to participate in anything they did.

Anyway, she liked taking walks. It was quiet and peaceful and she didn't have to worry so much about those around her. And, maybe, she'd see Naruto practicing or training. Naruto trained almost as much as Rock Lee, who she saw every day. Okay…not 'almost'. He didn't train nearly as much as Lee, because that was almost impossible, but he did train a lot.

She hadn't seen Naruto today though. Still…what did it matter? She only watched from afar, anyways…

She brushed an inquisitive bug away from her arm, vaguely thinking of the silent Shino. Maybe she should try and capture it and give it to Shino…but, he probably already had one in his collection already. There were very few bugs that Shino didn't have in his collection.

A small flower caught Hinata's attention. It was blooming beneath a large tree, branches splayed out over it. From where she stood, it didn't look like it was getting much sunshine at all as the tree's leaves served as a very effective shield, so she wondered how it was blooming so healthily.

Walking over, she was quick to see that two of the front petals, seperated only by a normal petal in between, were shaped almost like wings, fringed at one long edge. It made for a very beautiful flower, like a heron spreading its wings to fly off, or maybe just an angel's wings. However, unlike other girls, she never even considered picking it – it would die, eventually, and it seemed too beautiful to touch.

Hinata got up and, thinking about going to see Ino and asking about the flower's name – Ino would know, she worked in a flower shop – when she spotted a flash of dark blue a few trees away. Blinking, mildly curious, she wondered who it was. The only people she knew who wore dark blue was Sasuke, and at that he still only wore blue sometimes.

Then again, she couldn't expect others to wear the exact same clothing every day, could she? So, quietly, she pushed her way through the forest plants to get a closer look.

The other was standing with his back towards her, baring a symbol she'd seen before. Hinata squinted, although there was no need to do so, and thought of Sasuke again. Yes – it was the Uchiha clan symbol. Was it Sasuke?

If it was, he'd gotten a haircut that looked like Naruto's. That wouldn't make sense – why would he do that, it seemed to her like that hated…no, that was too strong a word. Disliked. Disliked each other.

But Sasuke was the only survivor of the Uchiha clan. She'd never been quite sure as to what had happened to the Uchiha clan, but she knew that Sasuke was the only survivor. So, it had to be Sasuke.

The person she assumed to be Sasuke turned around, and in that instant she knew that it wasn't Sasuke.

Wider, larger eyes, for one. No brooding frown. And, the last time she checked, Sasuke didn't wear orange goggles.

"Uh…!" Hinata half-smiled nervously, instantly clasping her hands in front of her and bowing. "H-Hello." She straightened up again and looked away, wondering if she should leave.

When there was no response, she chanced a quick glance at the other. She quickly saw his lips move, but there was no sound. Curiosity getting the better of her, she slowly turned her head back and looked directly at him, staring into his eyes. They were very black, like fathomless pits, so she looked away again. Still, he was smiling, and that seemed friendly enough.

He shrugged, and moved his lips again, soundlessly. Movement caused Hinata to look away again, but it was only his hand, raising in a wave. The next moment, he'd turned around and was disappearing further into the forest.

"Um…" Hinata watched him leave, still thinking, _The Uchiha clan was wiped out…_

* * *

Woot! –happy- People like the fic! XD; As you may be able to tell now, this isn't a one-shot. X3; Should've put that in there before, sorry xx;

WTF, Fanfiction doesn't put in underscores o.O;And a bunch of other stuff.Had to edit this chapter 2 times to get the little ruler-divider things in >>

Now you can either rejoice or…throw rotten stuff at me. Oo;


	3. 3

Warning: Spoilers from the Kakashi Gaiden arc nn;

* * *

_Everybody fails at least once_

_There's no shame in that_

Kakashi was brooding.

Which seemed rather odd of him. Kakashi wasn't loud, obnoxious, noisy. That was Naruto. Nor was he silent, really. That was Shino. But he certainly didn't brood. That was Sasuke.

He wasn't sulking, just pondering so deeply that it looked like he was sulking. Naruto's story brought back memories of a friend made far too late, of a grave underneath layers of earth and stone and rock, of a pair of goggles.

Did he want to go search out for this ghost himself? Maybe…It was possible that Naruto was making it all up, but due to Naruto's personality, if he was playing a prank, Kakashi would've known by now. He either would've figured it out himself or Naruto would've burst out laughing and said so.

He'd tried to distract himself already, but nothing had helped. Even Icha Icha Paradise hadn't worked.

Why?

Because…

…That was why. Because.

* * *

_It'd been summer, and Yondaime had given the team a day off. Kakashi had never found out what Rin had done, but she'd been absent the whole day. _

_He would've taken the time to practice more – he'd wanted to work on the new jutsu he'd created, Chidori – but his practice grounds had been taken by the team that consisted of Hayate, Genma, and Raidou.xHe hadn't felt like finding another place to train, and, for lack of anything better to do, he'd wandered off and found his way to the bookstore._

_Kakashi didn't even go to the section of books for those of his age – he'd tired of those books already. In fact, he'd tired of every book except for the ones located in the adult section, and the only reason he hadn't tired of those was because he wasn't allowed to read them. _Not like he wanted to, anyway_, he thought as he walked by the aisle and quickly looked towards the books. _

_He stopped suddenly when he spotted Obito at the opposite end, not quite in the aisle but staring at something from where he stood. Obito? What was he staring at? As far as he knew, Obito wasn't a sex-fiend and he wasn't a pervert…Still, Kakashi didn't know much when it concerned his teammates, other than the fact that they usually slowed him down._

_Still, he was curious, and it wasn't like there was anything else to do. He walked up further, then turned and made his way to the other end of the store. As soon as he emerged from the shelves of children's books, he saw Obito again, who hadn't moved at all. Neither did Obito seem to notice Kakashi. Odd. He usually did._

_So, walking up behind the Uchiha, Kakashi asked, "What're you staring at?"_

_Startling the other boy, Kakashi was amused to see Obito nearly jump a foot into the air. "Nothing!" he answered quickly, too quickly for Kakashi to leave it at that. However, before Kakashi could probe further Obito had already walked off, also walking a bit too quickly to quell Kakashi's suspicions. _

_He didn't follow Obito. Instead, he looked over at what Obito had been looking at. It looked like a series of books, and he read the title almost without thought – _Icha Icha Paradise.

* * *

"FOUND YOU!"

Naruto's loud voice interrupted Kakashi's thoughts. He wasn't annoyed. In fact, he was glad for the disruption and distraction.

Of course, Naruto was probably only looking for him to ask about Obito.

"Yes, you did." Kakashi cast a bland gaze down at Naruto from his perch on the rooftop.

"Yeah, couldn't get away from me!" Naruto stated, grinning.

"Feh!"

Kakashi looked over to Naruto's right and saw Sakura standing there, hands on hips, glaring at Naruto. "You wouldn't have found him if I hadn't told you!" she pointed out, which caused Naruto to deflate.

"Ehhh…" He scratched his head, then mumbled a quick thanks, which was enough for Sakura.

_As if Naruto's thanks meant anything to Sakura. _It was obvious, especially to Kakashi, that the only praise Sakura wanted was from Sasuke.

Kakashi wondered whether he should run now before Sasuke showed up. Though, with Sasuke's personality, he couldn't help but doubt that Sasuke would care about a Uchiha ghost. Unless it was direct family.

By this time, Naruto and Sakura had both made their way up to the roof where Kakashi sat. "I've already told Sakura about the ghost too," Naruto informed his teacher.

"Kya, ghosts don't exist." Not only from her statement, but the expression on her face told Kakashi that she was quite sure that Naruto had made every detail up.

"Wait till you see him!"

"Even if he did exist, he'd probably already have run away by now because of you!"

The squabble didn't last long, since Naruto had a crush on Sakura, he wouldn't argue with her. If it'd been Sasuke, it would've lasted for hours – wait, no, Naruto would've gone on for hours, Sasuke probably would've interjected once or twice and leave it at that.

One of the things Kakashi liked about Naruto was that he was always straightforward. What he thought, he said. A lot like Kiba. Somehow, Kakashi believed that if the two saw each other more often, they could be good friends. Or enemies. Their personalities might cause them to bicker constantly, even though they were so alike.

So, straightforward… "Kakashi-sensei, who _was _it?"

From the look Sakura was giving him, Kakashi suspected that although she didn't believe Naruto's story, she was extremely interested as to why he'd ran at record speed to get to the memorial stone. Obviously Naruto had told her everything.

"I don't know," Kakashi stated again, expression blank as usual. This time, both Naruto and Sakura stared hard at him, but in his whole lifetime, there'd only been a few people whom could ever read his expressions, and none of them were alive anymore.

"LIAR!" both students shouted, both out of habit and because they knew he was one.

"Why won't you tell us?" Naruto demanded, glowering at his teacher.

"We all have our own secrets," Kakashi responded in an innocent voice. Naruto's glower grew more fierce – it was obvious, to Naruto, that Kakashi was talking about the kyuubi sealed within him. xx

Being the sharp, intelligent girl she was, Sakura noticed the knowing look exchanged between her teacher and teammate. Still, when it came to Naruto she didn't really care much about any secrets he might've had – if it'd been Sasuke, now _that _would've been different.

And, being the sharp, intelligent girl she was, Sakura also noticed something else. Triumphantly, she exclaimed, "So, you _do _know someone who looks like Naruto's 'ghost'!"

"Huh?" Both Naruto and Kakashi stared at her.

"You said, 'We all have our own secrets', which makes it sound like there _is_ some connection between you and this person, but you just won't tell because it's your secret! Kakashi-sensei, really, if you tell us, we won't tell anyone else! Not even Sasuke, if you don't want him to know."

Turning his empty gaze to her, he only responded, "Like I said. I don't know anyone who looks like Naruto's ghost."

"Aw, why won't you tell us, Kakashi-sensei?" The glower returned to Naruto's face. "I was right, wasn't I? He was some Uchiha that you murdered!"

"Why would I murder someone who came from Konoha?"

"Maybe he's a missing-nin like Itachi!" Naruto answered.

Right before he was about to answer 'His name's on the memorial stone' Kakashi realized that he was supposed to keep up the lie that he didn't know this ghost, and that he didn't exist, so instead, he said, "If there was another missing-nin with the name of Uchiha, I've never met them."

Sakura was getting impatient. Obviously, she had other plans aside from standing on a rooftop attempting to pry secrets from her teacher all day. "Well, we'll eventually find out some day about this person, Kakashi-sensei. I'm leaving."

"Ah, wait, Sakura-chan!" Naruto ran after her, and the two of them both disappeared off the roof.

Letting out a small sigh of relief, Kakashi pulled out Icha Icha Paradise. The lie he'd just told was one of the only _true _lies – not like the ones he made up to explain why he was constantly late. Not like the ones Obito made. He needed a break from this.

This time, he was able to read without any other thoughts entering his mind.

* * *

"So _troublesome,_" Shikamaru muttered to himself.

So many things were troublesome. He was currently avoiding Asuma, who wanted him to train. Asuma wanted him to train a lot, these days, probably because he was a chuunin. Shikamaru was beginning to regret passing the Chuunin Exam.

Still, Asuma was nowhere to be found, so there was no need to keep running until he appeared again. And Asuma was usually easy to spot…or smell, because of the cigarette that seemed permanently glued to his lip. If he didn't die during a mission, Shikamaru was sure that he'd die of second-hand lung cancer. Even if he didn't spend the _rest_ of his life around Asuma.

So he made his way over to his favorite cloud-watching spot. Relieved, he found the benches empty. He'd always preferred to watch the clouds by himself, or with Chouji. Still, Shikamaru had a suspicion that his friend was still eating, so he wasn't there.

Shikamaru had just lain down when he spotted someone else coming up. Twisting his mouth into a frown, he sat up again and realized that this new person was someone he'd never seen before.

Spiky hair, weird goggles…Nope, never seen him before.

Never.

That was odd. Shikamaru didn't forget faces, not usually, and never when they were wearing orange goggles that glared out at you like Naruto's outfit. Maybe the boy was another chuunin – Shikamaru didn't know all of them. Or a jounin. No, that was doubtful. Probably not a jounin. But definitely a ninja, unless he'd stolen someone's forehead protector and was wearing it for the fun of it.

No one did that. It wasn't smart to pretend to be a ninja. Naruto hadn't even done that.

So, probably another chuunin. What was he up here for? Was he tracking down Shikamaru with a mission for him to do? No, didn't seem like it. Watching the other sit down, it seemed that he wasn't going to bother Shikamaru.

He lay back down again, but just as his head hit the bench, he sat straight up, noticing something.

The boy didn't look at him, so he probably didn't notice Shikamaru staring at him.

_No, that couldn't be right_, Shikamaru thought. He stared at the boy harder.

_That's…not possible. _

Before Shikamaru could stare longer, the boy got up again and left. Half-considering following him (he didn't, though, because it would just be far too bothersome), Shikamaru mulled over what he'd just seen.

As his attacks were usually connected with shadows, it was natural of him to notice other peoples' shadows without even thinking about it. So although others might not have thought about it, Shikamaru quickly noticed that the other boy did _not _have a shadow.

Even with his level of intelligence, he couldn't figure out how someone could manage to hide their shadow. Well, obviously stading in the shade of something else would hide it, but when the stranger had been out in the open, he still didn't cast a shadow.

That was impossible. It just was. Sure, people said that 'nothing is impossible' and that seemed very true in Konoha, with all its ninjutsu and genjutsu users…

Wait. Yeah, that had to be it. He was hiding his shadow using genjutsu. That was possible, wasn't it? Still, he'd only do that if he thought Shikamaru would attack him, or he was going to attack Shikamaru. Neither of which had happened. So that couldn't be right.

It would've made sense if he was going to attack Shikamaru, but he hadn't. If he thought he'd get attacked, then why'd he even go and sit next to Shikamaru in the first place?

"_Shikamaru!_"

"Damn!" Asuma had found him. Why hadn't he noticed the cigarette smoke earlier? Thoughts interrupted, all musings of the stranger were pushed to the back of Shikamaru's mind as he scrambled upright and dashed away.

* * *

x Eh…not sure if Hayate, Genma, and Raidou were on a team, but oh well. ;

xx I'm also fairly sure that Sakura and Sasuke and the rest of them still don't know that Naruto has the kyuubi sealed within him. Dammit, I have to review the anime/manga sometime soon.

Eh heh…and just to clear things up more for myself than for the audience, this is supposed to take place after the Chuunin Exam, and after Tsunade becomes the Fifth Hokage, but before Sasuke runs off.

Stupid Sasuke. –mobbed by all the Sasuke fans-

I'm also hoping I get my timeline right, but Naruto _did _meet Itachi while they were hunting Tsunade down, right? XX; If not, I have to go back and edit some parts where he's mentioned or vaguely referred to…

And thanks to all my reviewers! X3; Ideas are good. If you give me some, I _might _put them in depending on how well they'll fit in with my storyline. :D Yay, reviewers rock!


	4. 4

Warning: Spoilers from the Kakashi Gaiden arc n.n;

* * *

Subconsciously, Kakashi found himself hanging around the memorial stone more and more as the days went by. There'd been no talk of the ghost, not from Naruto or Sakura and not from anyone else. In a way, Kakashi wished that this weren't the case, but he was sure that if things stayed silent as they were, it'd only be for the better.

Still, if he really believed that, why did he seem to find himself always standing in front of the stone?

Never mind that. With his one eye, he thoroughly read through all of the names inscribed onto the black surface. So many names that he'd never heard of. He wondered if one day, his name would be on there as well, a dead _Hatake Kakashi _amongst many others.

Someone has left flowers at the foot of the grave. He wasn't a flower expert, so he wouldn't know what type of flower they were. Nor did he care about the type. He'd never brought flowers for Obito. Obito just wasn't exactly a flowery person, not to Kakashi. Rin, when she'd been alive, left flowers.

Rin – when she'd been alive. There was a twinge of guilt within Kakashi – no, more than a twinge. After all, he'd promised Obito, kind of.

"…_Take care…of Rin…"_

"_Right."_

He hadn't actually used the word 'promise' but it'd been one, anyway. You didn't need to use the word to make one.

He'd failed that promise. Rin had died. She'd been sent out with some other medical nins to retrieve a group that had gone out on a mission and been badly injured. One of the group's ninjas had came to Konoha with the call for help. He'd died soon afterwards, so they'd set out quickly. No one told Kakashi that she left, but he found out and ran after her and her group.

A large group of enemy ninjas got there just as Rin's group arrived, and she'd been killed along with the rest of them as she'd been trying to heal one of the injured. By the time Kakashi caught up, she was dead and the murderers, gone. And, in the end, Konoha had never found the attackers.

Rin had brought Obito flowers. Now her name was on the memorial stone too.

Kakashi had brought him stories.

He talked to Obito, about everything and nothing, but only when no one else was around. There wasn't anyone else in Konoha who talked to dead people, not that he knew of. If Obito could hear him, then he knew Kakashi's team as well as Kakashi did. He'd also know about his nephew, Sasuke, and Kakashi sometimes thought that if Obito were alive, he'd get along with Sasuke just as well as he'd gotten along with Kakashi before the events that resulted in his death.

Obito had once described their relationship like 'oil and water'. That'd be his relationship with Sasuke.

A lot like Naruto's.

"Hey, Obito…" Kakashi started, staring down at the memorial stone. He sighed, and went on. "Naruto thinks he saw your ghost some days before…"

* * *

"Do you believe in ghosts?"

Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji were sitting at the same table at the all-you-can-eat barbecue. As always, Chouji was paying more attention to his food than to the conversation, but at least Ino was listening.

But Ino thought of it as a silly question, and it became obvious as soon as Shikamaru had finished asking. "Ha!" She smirked and closed her eyes, propping her head up on her arm. "No, of course not."

"Why?" Shikamaru asked.

"Well…" Ino frowned. "Because…because supernatural things like that just don't exist."

"You can possess people and control them," Shikamaru pointed out. "Isn't that a bit supernatural?"

Ino scowled at him. "Yeah, I guess. But that's not like a ghost. Ghosts just don't exist. The dead are dead, and they remain that way."

Shrugging, Shikamaru could see that he wasn't going to get anywhere if the conversation went on, so he dropped the subject, choosing instead to watch Chouji and Ino squabble over the last piece of meat again.

* * *

"I don't see anyone, Hinata."

"I…did see him, a few days ago…"

"Well, that doesn't mean that they're going to be here again. Just because they were here once doesn't mean they'll be here again. Unless you're like Naruto. Every single evening, you'll find him at Ichiraku."

Kiba and Hinata were standing in the same part of the forest where she'd seen the Uchiha. Akamaru was sniffing around the trees, but if he sensed something, he was hiding it, and that wasn't something that Akamaru would do. Hinata was nervously shifting from foot to foot, fingers pressed together. It'd taken her a lot of courage to tell _someone _about the Uchiha. Shino had been making himself scarce lately, and Kurenai probably wouldn't believe her story. She didn't know anyone else well enough to spend more than a few minutes around, except Neji, and Neji hated her. So Kiba was the one she'd confided in.

"Y-yeah…" she stammered, looking around. She felt a little bad, dragging Kiba and Akamaru all the way through the forest to look for someone that either didn't exist or wasn't going to be there again.

Kiba frowned at Hinata. He hadn't really understood the reason why she'd lead him out here, though he had heard something about a Uchiha. Sasuke? No, she would've referred to Sasuke by his name. And, well, the rest of the Uchihas were dead. And other than that, she didn't seem delusional. Being in her team, Kiba knew that Hinata also wasn't the type to lie or make things up.

"So what's this about a Uchiha? I thought they all got killed, didn't they?" Akamaru barked his agreement a few trees away.

"Y-yeah…" she said again, looking down at the ground. "But I did see him…"

"See who?"

"I don't know…another Uchiha."

"That's impossible," Kiba stated bluntly. "You know that, right? They're all _dead, _Hinata, except for Sasuke. Are you _sure_ you didn't see Sasuke?"

"I…I saw Sasuke yesterday…He didn't look anything like…um…the boy I saw…"

"Boy?" Kiba echoed. "So, what was he? A genin? Chuunin? Jounin, maybe?" Kiba snickered. He didn't know anyone his age that was a jounin, though probably quite a few people he knew could _make_ it to that rank.

"I don't know…" Hinata said again, even more nervous.

"He wasn't an Academy student, was he?"

Hinata shook her head. "He had a headband."

Kiba scanned the area again. Ahead of him, Akamaru barked a few times. No, Kiba didn't see him, and Akamaru didn't see him, and neither of them smelled anyone or anything else. "Well, I don't think he'll be coming back today," he said. "Akamaru wants to go for a walk, wanna come with us?"

"Sure..."

* * *

Kakashi left the memorial stone, and was now walking through the busy streets of Konoha. He'd given Team 7 the day off again, and it seemed that a lot of teams had been let off as well, as he saw the other genins running back and forth crazily. He did notice, however, that Naruto and Sakura were absent. Still, that wasn't _that_ unusual. Sakura was probably following Sasuke, who didn't usually immerse himself in the crowds, and Naruto could be training.

He quickly went through the bookstore, but didn't spend much time there after he found out that no, the newest Icha Icha Paradise hadn't been released yet. Ah, Jiraiya always took his time writing…but then again, it meant he put a lot of effort into it. Either that, or he was simply slacking.

Kakashi didn't usually immerse himself in the crowds either, but he didn't feel like leaving the streets today. It wasn't something he understood, but he just didn't feel like making himself disappear that day.

He recalled, in his past, when he'd been ten and out of the watching groups of friends rush down the streets after the Academy let them out. He'd graduated four years ago, when he'd been six, but he'd been the only one so the teachers had yet to find two other students whom could join together with him to make a team. So he'd had a lot of free time in those days, though he usually trained by himself, or maybe, if he was lucky, with a chuunin or jounin.

Everyone had their own little groups of friends, except for a few. 'A few' had consisted of him, a boy – apparently the class clown – named Iruka, and Obito. Kakashi had never understood why Iruka didn't have any friends. He was funny, and friendly enough, but he didn't make friends anyway. Obito, no one had liked. He was loud-mouthed, always made pathetic excuses, and was the worst in every class. Even his own family sometimes ignored him. The Uchihas were known for being the best, and the fact that Obito carried the Uchiha name obviously shamed them.

The two hadn't known each other too well then, and they had no clue that later on, when they became a team, they'd hate each other's guts. So Kakashi had encountered Obito one day, standing at the bridge alone like he always did, and they'd started to talk.

"_Why're you always here?" _Kakashi had asked.

"_There's nowhere else to go," _had been his response.

"_You could go home."_

"_My family hates me."_

"_What about the shops?"_

"_I'd look stupid all by myself."_

"_Do you want to go?"_

"_Yeah. But have you ever seen anyone down there all by themselves, without friends?"_

"_No…"_

"_Exactly. They'd all laugh at me. Besides, what is there to do down there when there's no one with you?"_

During that conversation, Kakashi had considered asking if Obito wanted to go with him. But he'd never asked.

He wished that he had now.

As he meandered down the streets, he eventually found himself passing the Ichiraku. The Ichiraku hadn't been around when Obito had been alive, but he had liked ramen. Unlike Naruto, he hadn't lived off ramen, but he _had _loved to eat it. He had eaten much like Naruto – quickly, as if someone would snatch it away from them at any moment. No one else Kakashi knew always ate like that, though, maybe Chouji did. He didn't know Chouji all that well though.

A pang of hunger made itself known, and Kakashi briefly considered sitting down and ordering a bowl of ramen. But he ignored that thought. If he was going to eat, he'd have to take off his mask, and that wasn't something he felt like doing today. So he passed the Ichiraku and went on.

* * *

There was a blonde-haired, orange-clad figure standing in front of the memorial stone. One look at his face made it obvious that he was reading through all the names. Which wasn't exactly an easy feat, with all the names on there.

Naruto scowled. Today, he wasn't here to pay his respects. Who did he have to pay his respects to, other than the Third Hokage, maybe? He didn't recognize any names on that stone, aside from the Hokages and the third examiner of the Chuunin Exam…Hayate? Eh. The only Hokage he'd known well was the Third, and he knew nothing about Hayate. Aside from the fact that he was sick. Well, he _looked _sick and coughed a lot.

He hadn't given up the idea of figuring out whose ghost was haunting Konoha, though he hadn't seen the ghost again. The first time he saw him, he'd been standing with his back facing Naruto, so Naruto had spotted the Uchiha symbol immediately. At first, he'd thought that it was Sasuke, and yelled out his name, but then he'd turned around and Naruto had realized his mistake. At that, he'd apologized…

…And then realized that _Yes, the Uchihas were supposed to be dead._

So he asked the ghost, "Who are you?"

He hadn't received a response, since the ghost had walked away soon afterwards. Naruto had followed, but it seemed that the Uchiha had suddenly disappeared.

But, he had been first seen at the memorial stone.

Naruto was attempting to put two and two together again. This time, he was getting an answer much closer to four.

The ghost had been at the memorial stone…that probably meant…

…that his name was engraved _on _the stone.

He'd been a Uchiha, so 'Uchiha' would obviously be in his name somewhere. But there were so many names! Oddly enough, he hadn't seen any Uchihas yet. Weren't they all great ninjas? And they'd all died…but the memorial stone was for those who'd died for Konoha.

How had they died? Yeah…Itachi had killed them all, hadn't he?

In any case, Naruto hoped that every single Uchiha name _hadn't _been inscribed into the memorial stone. That'd cause a hell of a lot of complications for him.

Naruto stopped thinking about the Uchiha family's extinction when he traced his finger over a certain name. He stopped, and squinted hard, re-reading it.

Wait.

Was this it?

Yes…it had to be. Right?

Naruto kept his finger on that name and quickly scanned through the rest of the names…

"_No_!" he shrieked. "_Dammit_!"

There _were _a whole bunch of Uchiha names. All over the stone.

Ugh. Was he going to need that damn Sasuke's help after all?

* * *

o.O; Kinda long chapter.

In my version of the anime, it said the names on the memorial stone were the names of those ninja who died 'fighting for their country' or something like that. I'm not sure if the Uchiha clan defending themselves against Itachi counts as 'fighting for their country', so I'm going to be a little vague on that.

Anyway, yeah…all you really need to know is that yes, there are a lot of Uchihas on that stone. In this fanfic, anyway. ;

Finally got around to looking back at the manga…Again, to clear things up more for myself than for you guys, this should be taking place around Chapter 172-ish. I saw the scene where Sasuke's flashing back on his recent encounter Chap. 176 with Itachi. And I remember that when Sasuke got his ass kicked by Itachi, Naruto was there. So, yeah, by the time all this in the fanfic happens Naruto does know who Itachi is. XD;;

…It kinda diverts from the manga though. Here, in this manga, Naruto and Sasuke never fought on top of the hospital, and the Sound Four haven't come. But, Sasuke _is _out of the hospital and their life is kinda returning to 'normal' training under Kakashi, D-rank-ish missions. If the Sound Four appear at all, they won't appear until much later probably.

And, I'm still not sure on if Naruto _knows _that Itachi killed of the Uchiha clan, but if he doesn't, please assume that someone Kakashi, or Jiraiya, maybe told him ;; I _really _need to review. X.x;


	5. 5

Spoilers for the Kakashi Gaiden arc n.n;

* * *

Team 7 had always met at the bridge, while other teams would often times meet at different locations every time they got together. It wasn't something that Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke found odd though, because when you lived in Konoha and you were a ninja, there were odd things all over the place. But, although they didn't know it, there was a slight ghost of a reason as to why they always gathered on the bridge.

Simply put, it'd been where Kakashi's team had usually met.

Yondaime had always been the first one there, and then Rin usually came a bit early and Kakashi right on time. Obito had always been late without fail. Sometimes, they'd meet at different spots, but mostly it was at the bridge. The bridge hadn't been as clean back then. Often times kids peeled away at the red paint or etched names and messages into the wood. Not anymore.

But Team 7 didn't know about any of that.

"He's _late,_" Naruto pointed out for the millionth time that morning, aggravated.

"He's always late," Sakura answered. "When has Kakashi-sensei ever been on time?"

"Never," Naruto responded automatically. He scanned the nearby foreground again for any sign of the silver-haired jounin. It was obvious from all the fidgeting he was doing that he wanted to get started with training. He always did. Sakura, on the other hand, always ogled Sasuke and Sasuke ignored both Sakura and Naruto, usually leaning silently against the railing with his usual, bored expression. Sasuke didn't really have many expressions.

Today, however, Sasuke actually spoke. "He's unusually late today," he said, standing up straight for once and joining Naruto in the search for Kakashi.

Sakura immediately agreed with Sasuke because, well, he was Sasuke. "Ah, Sasuke-kun, you're right, he _is _unusually late…" She, too, joined her teammates in staring off at the horizon looking for movement.

"Bah," Naruto snorted. "Maybe we should all just go home, and come back much later, show _him _how it feels to be kept waiting…"

"Knowing Kakashi-sensei, if he didn't find us here he'd either search us out or just take the day off for himself," Sakura pointed out. "Whatever he'd do, he wouldn't wait here for us to come back."

"Maybe, Sakura-chan…"

Naruto trailed off as footsteps came nearer. The team turned around as one and immediately spotted Gai's team…or what was left of them.

Rock Lee was apparently in the hospital, or somewhere else recovering, because wherever he was, he wasn't with his other teammates. Still, Gai was Gai, and he was always exuberant. Neji and Ten Ten…well, they looked like Neji and Ten Ten, completely normal.

They stopped walking to stare at Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke for a moment, and then Gai asked, "Why are you three out here? Training by yourselves? Ah, the youth of Konoha today, such a spirited group!"

"We're waiting for Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said, crossing his arms and scowling. "He's really late this time!"

"We saw him when we passed by the memorial stone," Neji said, expression stoic as usual. "He was just standing there."

"Yeah," Ten Ten said, nodding affirmatively. "So, he didn't give you the day off or something?"

"No…" Sakura and Naruto answered at the same time.

"Ah…well, then, you should go find him!" Gai exclaimed, giving them the infamous 'nice-guy' pose. "Make sure to yell at him for not being able to stick to his word!" The three passed by and went on.

The mention of Kakashi, and the memorial stone, all in one sentence, made both Naruto and Sakura think about the ghost again. "Let's go find him," Naruto immediately said, cracking his knuckles. "What does he think he's doing, making us wait for so long?" he growled, looking as ominous as he could look.

"Well, I don't want to waste any more time here," Sakura said. "Let's go."

* * *

Kakashi wasn't the only one who'd been at the memorial stone that day. Genma had dropped by as well, and he hadn't been the slightest bit hesitant to intrude on Kakashi's solitude. He'd walked right up and stood next to the other jounin, and asked, "So, who're you here for?"

"Obito."

Kakashi didn't worry about telling Genma, or any of the other jounins. Most of them knew Obito, excluding the newer jounins, though in their death-filled lives, he was just another old face to them, now gone. Kakashi seriously doubted that any of them remembered anything else about Obito aside from appearance.

"Ah" was all that Genma said, chewing absent-mindedly on his senbon.

"What about you?"

"Hayate. And a hell of a lot of other people, but for today, mostly Hayate."

"Did you ever find out who killed him?"

"No, but it obviously had to be one of those Sand or Sound bastards."

"Going to get revenge?"

"No point in that. Killing the murderer never brings anyone back from the dead." A lot of jounins thought that way. Some had different idea about revenge, such as Asuma's idea that there were just too many dead friends to get revenge for all of them. The jounins and a few chuunins, having lived in the world for so long, knew that revenge never helped, unlike Sasuke who was hell-bent on killing Itachi.

"That's true," Kakashi responded, and then both of the jounins had been silent. Genma left.

"_Kakashi-sensei!" _

Kakashi blinked and his lip twitched. Who'd told them that he'd be there? Or was it possible that they simply figured it out themselves? Sakura was a pretty smart girl, after all…

"Yes?" he asked, turning around and staring blankly at the three rather irritated genins.

"You told us to meet at the bridge at six! And now it's _ten thirty! _That's…" Naruto quickly did some counting in his head. "Four and a half hours! _Four and a half hours late, Kakashi-sensei!_"

"I said six…?"

"Yes, you did_," _Sakura said, glaring. However, her glare oddly evaporated along with her anger and she asked, "What _are _you doing here, anyway? Neji said that you were just standing around…"

_Damn, _Kakashi thought. Now that he thought about it, he did hear Gai pass by not too long ago. So that was how his students had found him. Curse Gai.

"You do know that ghost, right? You're waiting for him!" Naruto exclaimed, looking triumphant.

"No…"

"Ghost?" Sasuke gave Naruto a skeptical look. "Ghosts don't exist…"

"Well, I saw one!" Naruto said, crossing his arms and glaring at his rival. "A Uchiha, too!"

Kakashi's lip twitched again. If there was anyone in his team who _might _know who Obito was, it was Sasuke…Doubtful, perhaps. But Sasuke _was _Obito's nephew. Still, doubtful. Obito _had _died before Sasuke was ever born.

Then again, even in the Uchiha family, not many awakened their Sharingan…perhaps Obito's name was recorded somewhere as one of those who'd awakened it.

"A…Uchiha?" Although his expression had barely changed, it was obvious that he was interested and wanted to hear more.

"Yeah! I can even describe him to you, he had orange-"

Kakashi cut him off abruptly. "Well, since you've found me and four and a half hours have already passed and gone, we'd better get started right away. We're sparring today, Naruto, you can go up against Sakura, Sasuke, you can fight whoever wins…"

Naruto only glared at Kakashi for cutting him off, but Sakura, who was much sharper than both of her teammates, gave Kakashi a suspicious and slightly triumphant look.

_Damn her intelligence, _Kakashi thought as Naruto and Sakura got ready to spar.

* * *

Thanks to mkh2 for the idea that Kakashi would be even tardier than usual! XD;; 


	6. 6

Warning: Spoilers for the Kakashi Gaiden arc and well…lots of other spoilers too. ;

* * *

"Oy! Sasuke!" 

Face frozen in his brooding expression, Sasuke turned around with his hands jammed deep into his pockets to face the bouncy, orange-clad ball of hyperness that was known as Naruto. They'd just finished their practice for the day and Kakashi had let them free. Of course, he'd made a point to be late as usual.

_This_ was odd, though. Naruto usually never seeked Sasuke out. What _wasn't _odd was the fact that Sakura was there as well. Sakura seemed to be around a lot. Still, back to Naruto.

"What do you want?" Sasuke asked, stopping and frowning at his teammate.

Making a face, Naruto said, "I…Sakura-chan and I, we need your help."

"Help?" Sasuke echoed. This was definitely one of those 'weird' days – Naruto would never ask for help from Sasuke. What did he want to know? "On what?"

"Here, let's go to the memorial stone," Sakura said. "It'll be easier, there."

Remaining immobile, Sasuke asked again, "What do you need my help for?"

"Identification," Sakura said.

At the same time, Naruto said, "Come on and we'll tell you!"

There was a brief period of silence in which Naruto and Sakura stared at each other, but Sasuke broke it when he shuffled over, hands still in his pockets. "Identifying who…what?"

"A ghost," Naruto said.

"A Uchiha," Sakura responded. The two stared at each other again, but Naruto shrugged and turned, starting to walk at a fast pace. Sakura looked back at Sasuke to make sure he was following, and went after her other teammate. Taking his time, the Uchiha followed, remembering the brief exclamation from Naruto a day before –

"_Ghost?" Sasuke gave Naruto a skeptical look. "Ghosts don't exist…"_

"_Well, I saw one!" Naruto said, crossing his arms and glaring at his rival. "A Uchiha, too!"_

It hadn't crossed Sasuke's mind again any time afterwards, although when he first heard of it he had been interested. Now he thought of it again, and, curiosity getting the better of him, decided to tag along with Naruto and Sakura.

The weather wasn't the best. The sky was a murky gray and the rain from the night before left large puddles and mixed with dirt to create mud. Altogether, it made for a very dreary atmosphere, affecting most everyone outside. However, this did nothing to change Naruto's attitude, for he was just as exuberant and excited as usual. He fairly flew to the memorial stone, making Sasuke run a little harder and faster than usual and leaving Sakura behind them, tired and gasping for breath.

"Naruto – slow – down –" Sakura panted when she finally caught up. They'd reached the tombstone, which seemed slightly more ominous looking with the weather.

"Sorry, Sakura-chan," Naruto said absent-mindedly. He turned to Sasuke, and his expression briefly changed to assure Sasuke that he didn't _want _to ask for his help, and said, "Have you ever known a Uchiha wearing –"

"Oy, what are you three doing here?"

Annoyed at being interrupted, Naruto spun around and was about to explode on the intruder when he found himself looking at a head of silver hair. He shut his mouth and furiously worked at finding an excuse.

Kakashi stared suspiciously at all three of them. None of the three had anyone to mourn for whose name was on the stone…

Unable to come up with an excuse, Naruto retorted, "What are _you _doing here, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Trying to read in peace," Kakashi said smoothly. All three genins' eyes immediately flashed to the book he held in his hand and Sakura's eye twitched.

"Kakashi-sensei," she said disapprovingly. "That book–"

"LIAR!" Naruto shouted at his teacher, cutting Sakura off. "You're ghost-watching!"

"Huh?" Kakashi asked, feigning innocence.

Was he? Kakashi wondered sometimes. He tended to hang around the memorial stone more often nowadays – was he really hoping to catch some sight of this ghost of Naruto's? Once again, he denied it all. Ghosts didn't exist, and if they did, it wouldn't just be Obito hanging around, would it? Besides, Naruto was the only one who actually saw the ghost. No one else could back him up. There wasn't any real proof…aside from the fact that Naruto had given a perfect description of Obito although Naruto hadn't been born until after Obito's death.

That brought Sasuke and Sakura both back to the topic of the ghost. Making sure that Kakashi couldn't cut her off, Sakura said very quickly to Sasuke, "Naruto said he saw a Uchiha ghost wearing orange goggles with spiky black hair, one eye closed, but his other eye a Sharingan eye. And he said that the closed eye looked empty behind the lid."

Kakashi's lip twitched, but he made no other indication that he recognized the description at all.

Naruto turned away from Kakashi and said, "Yeah, yeah! You know him?"

Blinking, having not understood Sakura as she talked so quickly, Sasuke shrugged and said, "I only heard something about one Sharingan and goggles."

"Well, you know anyone like that?"

"I don't remember anyone in my family wearing goggles."

_Obviously, _Kakashi thought to himself, still acting indifferent. He sat down next to the memorial stone and started to flip through Icha Icha Paradise. Obito hadn't been alive when Sasuke was born either, so Sasuke obviously wouldn't remember him.

He felt Sakura's gaze on him, and looked up from his book, coolly stared back. She was obviously waiting for some reaction, but she wasn't going to get it. Scowling slightly, she turned away back to Sasuke.

"Well, on this stone, is there someone here you don't know? A Uchiha, I mean?" Sakura gestured in the direction of the memorial stone.

Sauntering over to the tombstone, Sasuke started to look for all the Uchiha names. Impatiently, Naruto fidgeted next to him obviously wishing for Sasuke to hurry up.

"There are a few…" Sasuke began, narrowing his eyes. "Uchiha Arashi…Shimato…Kuma…"

As Sasuke began to read off names, Sakura turned once more to Kakashi. He knew that she was waiting for another reaction, and once more Kakashi was determined that she wouldn't get it. He still wasn't sure as to why he didn't want his team to know about Obito.

Well…maybe not.

Obito was a painful reminder of Kakashi's past, someone he'd failed. Failed, because he'd had a huge stick up his ass. Failed, because he didn't value human life. Failed, because he'd never listened to Yondaime, because he'd convinced himself that _his _way was right…

"…Obito…" Sasuke read.

Just slightly, Kakashi gritted his teeth together. He was eternally thankful for the mask.

"…Asurame…" Sasuke fell silent as he scanned the rest of the names. Finally, he took a step back and shrugged, shutting his eyes. "That's all."

Sakura sighed in frustration. "Can you identify which ones had Sharingan?" she asked.

"We could check the records," Sasuke replied.

"Come on then!" Naruto shouted, impatience coming out. He dashed off again. Sasuke followed him, although he simply shuffled along. Sakura cast one last glance at Kakashi and then went after her teammates.

Well, he was safe for now. Kakashi focused all his attention on reading Icha Icha Paradise.

* * *

Neji was counting the birds again. 

It was a habit now. Everyday, while he walked through the woods to get to wherever he was going (today, it was to the Main House, he was sparring with Hiashi again) he'd momentarily stop and count the birds flying overhead, using his Byakuugan. Sometimes he did it more than once. Sometimes he was right, and he managed to count all the birds, and at other times, he was dead wrong and counted one less. It was bothering him.

But today…

"Seven birds…" he murmured to himself.

Seven birds and…

A huge amount of chakra.

Neji deactivated the Byakuugan and spun around. That was an enormous amount of chakra – he hadn't known it was possible to have so much! In fact, it seemed like the source was just _all _chakra, which should've meant it was a clone, perhaps, but why would a clone have more chakra than seemingly possible?

Yet, all he saw when he turned around was a very normal-looking boy. Sunlight was reflecting off the boy's goggles, and he had one eye shut, and the other eye was a Sharingan eye. Unsurprisingly, the first thought that came to Neji was that the Uchiha family was supposedly extinct.

He wasn't quite sure what he thought afterwards.

Staring hard at the posessor of the Sharingan, Neji tried to determine whether he was looking for a fight, and for the moment, ignoring the fact that he seemed to be entirely made of chakra. Neither of the two did anything except for watch each other, so Neji finally broke the silence and asked, "Who are you?"

The boy ignored him, not saying or doing anything automatically. Instead, he stared Neji right in the eye. Finally he did something - lips moved, but there was no sound. Wondering if he was mute, Neji walked up closer to the boy. Well, if the Uchiha was mute it wasn't because his tongue was cut out, Neji could see that just fine. However, that wasn't helping him understand what the boy was trying to tell him – Neji didn't know how to lip-read.

"I thought Sasuke was the only surviving member of the Uchiha clan," Neji said warily. He'd never seen this Uchiha in Konoha before, and he didn't look like a chuunin or jounin, and definitely not an ANBU. Surely, if he lived in the village, Neji would've spotted him at least once? After all, he wore glaring orange goggles – that wasn't something that was common and Neji certainly would've remembered it. He also would've _definitely _remembered another inheritor of the Sharingan eye. Perhaps this Uchiha had run away before the Uchiha clan was wiped out and was a missing-nin? In that case…

Neji quickly sized the boy up. He wasn't tall or large, so Neji was sure that he was at least on equal footing with the Uchiha in physical strength. The Sharingan would always pose a problem, but Neji didn't entirely depend on jutsu and besides, he had his own Byakuugan. He held no weapons, aside from whatever he kept in his pouch, but that was probably just kunai and shuriken and other small weapons. Judging from the empty look behind the boy's eyelids, Neji judged that the boy only had one eye – one less Sharingan to worry about.

The boy didn't look like he was about to enter a fight though. His pose was relaxed, hands empty and at his sides. The only disturbing thing about him was the fact that he had more chakra than seemingly possible, and the fact that although his lips moved, he made no noise.

No noise? Neji thought about that for a moment. Since he'd been counting the birds again, he would've saw the boy walk in…yet, right before he'd seen the Uchiha there'd been nothing there. It seemed that he'd just magically teleported into place. Neji wasn't sure if that was possible, and besides, he would've noticed the swirl of chakra freed by any teleportation jutsu. The boy had chakra, yes, but it was all within him. He hadn't used any of it.

So, he hadn't seen the boy walk in. Perhaps that was possible, because he didn't always get the number of birds right, but he would've at least heard him. It'd rained heavily during the night and the ground was muddy, so whenever someone stepped in it, the mud made squelching noises. However, Neji hadn't heard the boy arrive either, nor had he seen him.

And…

Neji cast a quick glance down at the boy's feet. He wasn't quite sure why, but he _knew _the boy definitely wasn't normal. From the feet up, the Uchiha looked normal, but looking at his feet, Neji immediately noticed that although the ground was muddy, the boys' sandals were clean and completely mud-free. That was impossible, definitely, unless he'd cast some sort of jutsu that protected his feet from coming in contact with mud, but why would someone do a useless thing like that? Also, he had no more chakra concentrated in his feet than in any other part of his body, so he obviously hadn't used a jutsu.

"What…who are you?" Neji asked again, narrowing his eyes, ready to activate his bloodline at any time.

Having seen Neji look down, the Uchiha had followed his gaze and looked down at his own feet as well. Apparently, he didn't realize the fact that they were mud-free was not strange in anyway, he looked back up with a confused look on his face.

Once more, Neji's question was ignored as the boy waved and turned around, leaving. Neji stared down at the ground and noted with growing bafflement that the boy left no footprints in the soft mud.

* * *

And the plot, she thickens! (gasp!) Neji, smart cookie he is, has realized other things about the Uchiha ghost aside from the fact that he can't be heard, has no shadow, and is from an supposedly extinct clan! 

And will Naruto and company discover the identity of their ghost?

Stay tuned for the next to-be-procrasinated-on chapter!

:smacked:


	7. 7

Warning: Spoilers from the Kakashi Gaiden arc nn;

* * *

_Everybody fails at least once_

_There's no shame in that_

* * *

"Bah! This'll take forever!" was the first thing that Naruto had said when Sakura had pulled down the thick volume of records. It was very intimidating to look at, and judging from the dust that had settled on it no one had bothered to look at it in a while – who would? Most people had better things to do than flip through a large book on the Uchihas.

Except, of course, for Team 7. Naruto sighed when he received a look from Sakura that all-too-clearly stated, "_Do you want to figure out who this ghost is or not?_" and sat down at the table, opposite Sasuke. Sakura rolled his eyes at him.

"Unless you read upside down, I suggest you get over on this side of the table too," she said, sitting down with the book next to Sasuke. A bit too close for Sasuke's comfort – he scooted away a little as Sakura opened the book. Shooting a standard glare at Sasuke, Naruto slid around the table next to Sakura, peering over her shoulder at the book.

Surprisingly enough, the section on those who'd activated their Sharingan eye wasn't much. Sasuke only 'hmphed' and informed them, "The Sharingan's rare, even in the Uchiha family. It's activated only by a few clan members."

"Oh, so that makes you really great, huh?" Naruto shot back, saying it in a mocking tone. Sakura hushed him, already scanning through the list. There were pictures accompanying brief descriptions, but it hadn't been updated in a while, as Sasuke wasn't on there. Being Sakura, she'd quickly checked for a picture while neither of her two teammates weren't looking and was disappointed, not finding it.

Insisting that she was the fastest reader, Sakura immersed herself into the records, actually reading through everything instead of skimming over it. Having nothing to do, Naruto got fidgety and finally spoke up.

"Sakura-chan, you're taking so long," Naruto complained. "Why don't we just look through the pictures?"

"There are a few without pictures," Sakura snapped back, irritated at being interrupted. "We might miss him!"

"Well, if we do we can just go back to the ones without pictures and look over them!"

"I want to look through this, okay? It's actually really interesting!"

"You're only reading it because it's related to Sasuke!"

"_Am not!" _

Having no input on the conversation, Sasuke, looking bored, rolled his eyes at both of them. Sakura turned back to the book and flipped the page –

"_There he is!" _Naruto shrieked.

"_Quiet!" _Sakura hissed, her hand shooting up to smack him. However, she caught sight of a librarian around the corner who'd come to check why Naruto had shrieked and her hand froze mid-air. The librarian shook her head and turned back to whatever she'd been doing and only then did Sakura give Naruto a well-deserved smack.

"We're in a library!" she whispered. "Be quiet, okay?"

"Oy…I thought I heard Naruto…"

All three genins turned around to face the infamously lazy Nara Shikamaru. He was holding up a book with one hand, which, to Naruto looked quite boring. It was on shogi tactics, and Naruto was quite firm in the belief that shogi was the most boring thing on earth.

Sakura greeted him; "Hello, Shikamaru."

"What are you three doing here?" Shikamaru asked, giving them a skeptical look. Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke were the last people he'd expected in a library. Without waiting for a invitation, he walked over to look at the book all three were huddled over and his skeptical expression quickly changed into one of surprise.

"Hey…"

Having already lost interest in Shikamaru's presence, Naruto had already turned back to the book and was excited jabbing his finger at one section of the page. "It's him, I swear it is! Sakura-chan, look! See?"

The picture was in color, but even so it looked rather old and faded. In it was the face of a boy with short black hair, goggles, and jet-black eyes, face turned away from the camera but still looking at it, mouth twisted into a scowl, and what looked like a sharpened stick clamped between his teeth. Upon seeing the picture and matching it to Naruto's description of the ghost, Sakura's face melted into triumph and even Sasuke discarded his normal face for a moment to look surprised.

"_I told you I saw a ghost!" _Naruto hissed, careful to keep his voice down. "See? It's a perfect match!"

"Oy!" Shikamaru drew attention back to himself. Decisively, he snapped his own book shut without ever taking his eyes off the picture. "I saw that kid, too…where I usually watch clouds…he came up and sat next to me, didn't say anything, but…he didn't have a shadow…"

"See! Ghosts do exist!" Naruto was in a triumphant frenzy now, and if he didn't calm down quickly it was obvious that he'd start shrieking in a few moments, so Sakura hushed him again.

"Name, Uchiha Obito – Yeah, Sasuke-kun, didn't we see that name on the stone?"

"Yes…" Sasuke still looked surprised.

Shikamaru didn't wait for Sakura and started reading the description himself. "Gender, male. Age at death, twelve. Date of birth, September 17th. Date of Sharingan activation, July 28th. Date of death, July 28th. That's it?"

"He died on the same day he awoke his Sharingan?" Naruto asked incredously.

"Died at age twelve…" Sakura said.

Sasuke was looking over the picture. "Well, you said that he only had one eye…he has two in this photo."

"Yeah, he doesn't have the Sharingan either and everyone else on this page does…"

This time, it was Shikamaru who rolled his eyes. "Obviously," he said dryly. "If he died the same day he activated his Sharingan eyes, then it's unlikely that they had time to photograph him with them."

"So…either Kakashi-sensei killed him or –"

Sakura didn't give Naruto time to finish his sentence. "Or they were friends," she said, finishing it off for him.

"When did Kakashi get involved?" Shikamaru asked, looking more than a little confused.

"Oh!" Naruto exclaimed, realizing Shikamaru didn't know the story. "Well, you see, I saw this ghost and I was telling Kakashi-sensei about it and then Kakashi-sensei went sorta crazy and he ran faster than anyone I've seen before – even Bushy-Brows! – to the memorial stone because that's where I saw the ghost. So Kakashi and the ghost – Obito – must be related somehow!"

"Maybe he was just worried that a ghost would cause trouble. It's possible that there were ghosts in Konoha in the past that wreaked havoc on the people. After all, there's bound to be chaos if dead people start appearing in the village," Shikamaru said, shrugging. "Then again, if something like that _did _happen I'm sure it'd be in the records somewhere."

Naruto scowled. "That's true…but…I still think they have some sort of connection!" With that, he ran off after his teammates, forgetting again that they were in a library and one; he wasn't supposed to run and two; he wasn't supposed to shout for them to wait up.

Shikamaru watched them get shooed out by the librarian, then reached up for the Uchiha records to flip through them again.

* * *

"Boss…I think someone's been stealing!"

Ino was attempting to tie her apron on while looking for the owner of the flower shop she worked at. It wasn't an easy feat, because while she was walking her foot or leg would often catch on the long strings and ruin the knot and she'd have to start all over again, but her efforts were valiant. Frowning, and biting her lip, Ino stopped for a moment to look at the store again.

It was a Sunday, so the store had opened later than usual but when she'd arrived, many flowers were out of place and there were quite a few missing. She couldn't quite remember the ones missing, but she had immediately spotted the empty vases and knew that someone had been around while the store'd been closed. Those vases had been _full _when she had closed the store the day before.

"Oh, really?" her boss said, not sounding like she'd been listening at all. "Who?"

"If I knew, I'd search them out and give them a beating!" Ino fumed, poking her head in through the door where Okada Akama, her boss, was.

"How many flowers?"

"Um…" Ino looked backwards to take stock. "Well, not a lot…but still! Ergh!"

"Well, there's nothing to be done about it. Just open the store and forget about it – it's probably not much money lost, anyway."

"Fine, Akama-san." Turning around, Ino strode over to the doors and flipped the sign over, proclaiming that they were open. Then, deciding that it was a nice enough day, she opened the doors as well. Maybe the smell of the flowers would draw customers in.

She strolled over to her normal spot behind the counter, giving the empty vases a glare before quickly turning it into a smile as the first customer of the day walked in.

* * *

Kakashi stared at the memorial stone and the flowers carefully set upon it. Most people who left flowers had their own arrangements, or types of flowers that they left, and those flower arrangements of types didn't seem to change. The first example Kakashi could come up with was Uzuki Yuugao, who'd been Hayate's girlfriend, who always brought some type of white flower that Kakashi couldn't remember the name of. Anyways, Genma did the same, whenever he was thoughtful enough to bring flowers, as did the others who mourned for their friends on the marker.

Rin had always brought small fringed orchids – she'd called them sagisos. She'd grown them herself. When she died, they'd died too, because without her no one was there to take care of them. Kakashi remembered walking into her room to clean her apartment out for another inhabitant, and seeing the wilted flowers in their little box at the window.

Dead, like Rin and Yondaime and Obito.

But these flowers…they looked like they'd been chosen with care, but at the same time they also didn't seem to go well with each other although the person who'd left them had evidently tried to make them look good. The quality of the flower arrangement looked like Naruto-quality work.

Which wasn't very good work.

Still, aside from it looking like Naruto's work it also looked like something Obito might've done.

But Obito was dead. That didn't go together very well.

So Kakashi did what he did every day.

"Well, I forgot to set my alarm so I woke up late this morning. Sorry about that. I'm usually not late to talk to you…"

* * *

Finally got around to typing this up. X.x; Something different happens! (insert gasp here.)

Well, kind of different.

Anyway, thanks to all those great people who have either reviewed or added me to their faves or done both. You people rock! xD


	8. 8

Warning: Spoilers for the Kakashi Gaiden arc and well…lots of other spoilers too.

* * *

_I'm dead, Kakashi. But. You know. I think I'll be coming to see you soon._

_Where are you, Kakashi?_

* * *

Well, if Naruto was right in his prediction and Kakashi and Uchiha Obito were related, the first thing Shikamaru thought of was that they were in the same team when they were genins. It was rather logical, since the strongest friendships were between those genins together on a team. So he'd put the records book back and calmly walked out of the library, trying to think of where he'd find information on Kakashi's former team.

He himself wasn't quite sure why this interested himso much that he'd actually research on it – then again, he _had _just seen someone who'd supposedly been dead for fourteen years (according to the Uchiha records, anyway). Someone who, Shikamaru added, didn't have a shadow. Those two things were enough to get Shikamaru interested.

Well, if that Kabuto was still around, Shikamaru could've gone to him since he had those chakra cards, but Shikamaru had learned that Kabuto had actually been working for the Sound – a spy. The chakra cards fit in, then – a spy was, after all, a collector of information.

Anyway, Kabuto wasn't around, so that option was gone. Shikamaru's interest wasn't high enough to make him want to search through the library for records on teams of the past and the librarians there scared him.

He walked past the barbecque that Chouji frequented and waved to his best friend and Asuma through the window as he walked by. Chouji had recently undergone rapid progress through training, and so Asuma had taken to treating Chouji…

Asuma.

Asuma was around the same age as Kakashi, and the two were friends and comrades, so perhaps they'd been on the same team. Even if they hadn't, surely Asuma would know the members of Kakashi's team – heck, Shikamaru knew all the members of three rookie teams, at least.

He backtracked and walked through the door just as Chouji began to devour his food. Asuma looked up from the table and waved to Shikamaru, motioning for him to sit down. Walking over, Shikamaru did so, next to Chouji.

Wasting no time with greetings, Shikamaru asked his teacher, "Asuma-sensei, were you on Kakashi-sensei's team?"

Looking surprised at the question, Asuma shifted the position of the cigarette in his mouth and said, "No, I wasn't. Why?"

Ignoring Asuma's 'why?', Shikamaru asked his second question. "Do you know who _was _on Kakashi-sensei's team, then?"

"Mm…" Adopting an expression of deep thought, Asuma leaned backwards and stared up at the ceiling for a moment. Patiently, Shikamaru waited and Chouji looked up from his food.

"What's the matter, Shikamaru?" Chouji asked of his friend, after he finished chewing and swallowing.

Leaning over to whisper in Chouji's ear, Shikamaru hissed, "I think I met a ghost."

Keeping his voice equally quiet, Chouji echoed back. "A ghost?"

"Yeah. It seems like Naruto also saw the ghost, and I saw him and Sasuke and Sakura in the library looking through the Uchiha records because the ghost wore the Uchiha clan symbol on his clothing. They identified the ghost as 'Uchiha Obito' and Naruto started babbling on about thinking that the ghost had a connection with Kakashi-sensei. So I'm trying to figure out if there _is _a connection."

Chouji was about to say something, but Asuma leaned forwards towards Shikamaru and said, "Yeah, I know who was on Kakashi's team."

"Who?"

"His teacher was the Fourth Hokage himself, though at that time he still wasn't Hokage (1). One of the genins was a girl named Rin. She was an extremely skilled medical nin. The third member was a boy named Obito, of the Uchiha clan, I think."

Admittedly, Shikamaru wasn't all that surprised that Uchiha Obito had been on Kakashi's team, as he'd suspected it all along. The reason that he widened his eyes in surprise was that their teacher had been the _Fourth Hokage. _Well, then again, they must've been a strong, talented team, considering the members; Rin, a skilled medical nin, Obito, from the great Uchiha clan, and Kakashi the Copy-nin, who was, according to Rock Lee and Gai, a genius.

"Why'd you want to know, anyway?" Asuma asked, brows moving upwards in skepticism.

"Oh, I was just curious," Shikamaru said, unable to come up with a good excuse.

Hearing this, Chouji apparently had the sense to keep silent and not ask about the subject of Uchiha Obito the ghost. Undoubtedly, he was also interested in the subject, but for the moment he was content enough to continue eating, and he did so with great relish.

So before Asuma could inquire any further, Shikamaru excused himself and left.

* * *

"How're we going to find out if Obito was Kakashi-sensei's friend?" Naruto demanded of his teammates, arms crossed in irritation. 

"Gai-sensei must know Kakashi-sensei pretty well, if they're both rivals," Sakura immediately pointed out. "Maybe if we ask him, he'll know?"

Making a face, Naruto immediately rejected her idea. "He scares me, with those huge eybrows of his! Put together with Lee, and I would rather fight Gaara again!"

Sasuke only smirked at Naruto's outburst and offered no input whatsoever on what they should do.

"Oh, really? Then what do you suggest we do?" Sakura shot back, scowling. "Do _you_ have a better plan?"

"Well…"

"See? You don't have a better plan! Sasuke-kun, we should just ask Gai-sensei about it, right?" Sakura turned her back on the yellow-haired boy to face her crush, smiling sweetly.

Shrugging indifferently, Sasuke only said, "It doesn't matter to me."

"Alright, Sasuke-kun and I will go then! If you're so _scared, _Naruto, you can just stay back and wait for us! Okay?"

"No, wait! I was kidding, I'm not scared by him! I'm coming too, wait!"

* * *

The place was a wreck. 

That was the first thing Kakashi thought, and he suspected that it was the first thing that the other nins amassed in the room thought as well. Luckily, he'd gotten to the scene quickest and had a good view of the place.

The Uchiha clan's homes had never been destroyed, but no one lived there either, most likely because of the whole clan having been murdered there. Obviously, after Itachi had killed them all, the place had been cleaned up and tidied, belongings removed to put into storage, and so for a long period of time it had been neat and empty and of no interest to anyone.

Now, however, one of the rooms was filled with both other ninjas and common civilians, all craning their necks to take a look at the place.

On further reflection, the wreckage wasn't _too _bad. It wasn't as if the walls had been torn down and the ceiling blasted off. In fact, the severity of it was comparable to Naruto's room, as if someone had recklessly thrown things over their shoulder in search of something.

The bed's covers had been pulled off and left scrunched up on the floor, pillow thrown halfway across the room. The cabinet doors were all flung open as were the closet doors. Within the closet, spare sheets and pillows had been chucked out into the room. A table had been pulled away from its original position up against the wall and tipped over – gently, as there were no marks left on the floor.

A loose floorboard near the bed had been pulled up.

With a pang, Kakashi recognized the room as Obito's.

It was familiar now. Although when Obito had been alive, Kakashi had never entered his room or gone anywhere near it, he'd paced around it many times after Obito had died. He'd been allowed the privilege of clearing out the Uchiha's room and had done so, though he hadn't taken any of Obito's personal belongings for himself. They'd all gone into storage.

He did remember the floorboard being akin to a treasure chest. When he'd just finished clearing out Obito's room the floorboard had been poking out of the floor and his foot had caught on it, pulling it up even further to reveal the hollow space below it. Upon further inspection, Kakashi had found many things that had undoubtedly been important to the boy. Among them had been a few scrolls, a medium-sized shuriken that Kakashi recognized as the one that Yondaime had given to Obito, an arrangement of pressed flowers that Rin had given, a pair of broken goggles, and a notebook with hastily scrawled journal entries. The notebook had quite clearly been stamped private, as the red letters scratched onto the cover declared.

All of the things Kakashi had found in the floorboard had been put into storage, never to be touched again. When he'd picked up the notebook he'd been tempted to read it, but had seen the 'PRIVATE' stamp and believed that even though Obito was dead, Kakashi still had no write to go looking in something that he'd obviously wanted to keep secret. In the end, he'd never opened it.

The hollow space was empty now. Kakashi had been sure to securely replace the floorboard when he'd finished with the clearing out of the room, and made sure that it looked completely normal before he'd left. Even so, it could be fairly easy for any shinobi to find it, so it being pulled up wasn't unusual.

"What do you think, Kakashi?"

It was Kurenai, to Kakashi's left. He glanced over at her and said, "Looks like someone was looking for something here."

"Do you think they found what they were looking for?"

"Ah…no. I cleared this room out myself, and I'm sure that there was nothing here of interest to anyone." He chose not to tell her that he'd cleared the room out before the Uchiha massacre, so she believed that it was after the horrid event.

"What do you think they were looking for?"

"No clue." Kakashi was very aware of the fact that he was being unhelpful.

"Out of the way!"

An imperial-sounding, female voice came from behind the crowd and instantly, shinobi and civilians alike jumped aside to clear a path. Without turning around, Kakashi already recognized the source of the voice – Tsunade, the current Hokage.

She walked up besides Kakashi, looking around the room. "What's been going on?"

"No clue," Kakashi repeated, quite cheerfully.

"Kakashi said that he thinks that someone was looking for something in this room," Kurenai said, looking up at Tsunade. "However, aside from that, there isn't any serious damage done. The house itself is intact, except for maybe a few scratches on the ground when the table was dragged away from the wall before it got tipped over."

Tsunade sighed. "I thought something big had happened, from the crowd around this place. Well, someone clean it up, I've got a few things to do."

"Yes, Tsunade-sama," Kakashi said vaguely, still staring at the wreckage.

* * *

_Still can't find you. Can't find a lot of stuff, now. So many changes. I feel so left behind._

_So left behind._

* * *

(1) : I don't _think_ that he was Hokage when he was still the teacher of Kakashi's team, anyway. O.o; 

HoSHIT. The Kanjii updated. _Gasp! _

So…dun dun dun! Stuff is happening! Oooo!

(_slapped_)

Kay, I'll stop now. -.-;

Anyways, people, while I procrasinate more on the next chapter go read Diminishing Rayne's Naruto fanfic(s?)! I help her out on some of the ideas :D

Oh, and to mkh2 and anyone else who cares about the name change: Kanjii's just the name I use at just about every site/forum I register in. x3; So I figured before I start confusing myself I'd change my name here on to Kanjii as well n.n


	9. Chapter 9

Do I even need the spoiler warning anymore?

* * *

No matter where Team 7 looked, Gai was not there. They found almost everyone, ranging from Ino to TenTen, but they did _not _find Gai. Nor did they find any members of his team. And it was only after an hour of fruitless searching that they found Hinata, who told them that Neji and the rest of them were out on a sort of half-mission, half-training session and wouldn't be back until the next day.

"Oy, _great_," Naruto groaned, flopping down on the ground. They'd just seen Hinata a few minutes before, and then they'd gone off to rest in the forests. He looked up at the sky, watching the clouds swirl by slowly and scowling. "Well, _now _what?"

"Well…on the bright side…we at least got some exercise?" Sakura sighed, sitting down as well.

Sasuke chose to remain standing. "That was useless," he muttered.

"Why don't we just go ask Kakashi-sensei himself? I mean, now we have _proof _that the ghost exists! We even know his _name _and when he _died._ But, then, if Kakashi-sensei did kill Obito…"

"That's stupid, Naruto! Kakashi-sensei wouldn't kill someone from Konoha, and if he did I doubt he'd be alive, least of all still be living in the village!" Sakura snapped, crossing her arms. She'd heard Naruto's theory that Kakashi had killed Obito, and had immediately put it off as impossible because one; what she just stated and two; he'd obviously died fighting for Konoha, not from fighting _with _Konoha. She just hadn't said anything up till now.

"What if Obito turned missing-nin?" Naruto asked.

"Idiot…if he was a missing-nin, they wouldn't have put his name on the cenotaph…" Sasuke said. "Listen, Kakashi-sensei didn't kill Obito. I agree with Sakura on what she said, and, also, he _died fighting for Konoha._ Wasn't murdered by someone from Konoha, unless they were missing-nin. Which Kakashi-sensei isn't."

"Feh…" Naruto said, glaring at Sasuke, but fell silent in defeat.

Sakura, on the other hand, blushed with pleasure that Sasuke agreed with her. Score for Sakura. "Right, so we've got that out of our hands," she said. "If there's any connectoin between Obito and Kakashi-sensei, they were friends, or teammates, or rivals."

"Naw, I don't think they were rivals, Gai already got that position," Naruto said dismissively.

"Well, you _can _have more than one rival! Or maybe Gai came after Obito!"

"This is useless," Sasuke stated once more. "I'm sure Iruka-sensei or anyone else around Kakashi's age knew who was on his team. Since he's a prodigy and all, most people would know him. All we have to do is find someone else. We don't need Gai."

"That's right, Sasuke-chan!" Sakura exclaimed, getting up. Naruto followed soon afterwards.

"Hn. Fine, then," he mumbled as he walked past his teammates. Sakura shrugged at Sasuke, who ignored her and followed Naruto out of the forest.

Konoha wasn't particularly busy that day. It was far too hot for people to be very active. Even through his sandals, Naruto could still feel the heat of the ground radiating upwards, while the sun beat down on the trio, and the fact that they were walking with the sun in front of them didn't help much.

Also, the cardboard lamp post following them around didn't improve matters any.

"_Konohamaru!" _Naruto shouted after ten minutes had passed. He spun around angrily and pointed at the poorly made 'disguise'. "_I can still see you behind that stupid thing!" _

The cardboard lamp post was thrown away and Konohamaru appeared in his full glory, long scarf trailing behind him as he ran towards Naruto. "Ha! Only you could see through my great disguise, Naruto nii-chan!"

"Bah!" was all Naruto said in reply. "So, what is it now?"

"Moegi and Udon both won't play today," Konohamaru said, pouting. "They say it's too hot."

"It is," Naruto agreed, completely ignoring his two teammates as they stood to the side, patiently waiting. Well, not so patiently in Sakura's case, but she kept her impatience down. Surely this wouldn't take long.

"So will you play with me today, nii-chan? We haven't played ninja in a long time!"

"Aw, I'm busy, Konohamaru!"

"Really? Really?" Leaning forward in interest, Konohamaru whispered, "What are you doing? Is it a dangerous mission?"

"Uh-huh!" Naruto leaned downwards as well and whispered, "We're tracking down a ghost!"

"A ghost? What ghost?"

"Well, actually, we're trying to figure out this ghost's relation to a certain someone, but it's a ghost of…" For dramatic effect, Naruto paused, leaving Konohamaru anxiously waiting. "…it's the ghost of a _Uchiha!" _

"Whoa!" Konohamaru exclaimed. "Can I come with you?"

"Nope, sorry!" Naruto stood up. "It's too dangerous for you!"

"Awww! Please? I'll help! Really!" At this point, Konohamaru was jumping up and down in his eagerness.

"Well, there's one way you can help." Looking around again, Naruto still couldn't find any ninja of Kakashi's generation. Civilians, there were a lot of, but ninjas, nope. Somehow, to all three of Team 7, it didn't seem right to bother a common person about such things. They'd probably get suspicious and report it to Kakashi. However, many _ninja_, on the other hand, didn't care about what genins of other teams were doing.

"Find us someone who's…um…twenty, or so? Twenty-seven, maybe?"

"Sure thing, Naruto nii-chan!" Konohamaru started to run. "Just follow me!"

"Come on, Sakura-chan, Sasuke! Konohamaru's going to find us someone we can ask about…well, you know what!" Naruto called out as he broke out in a run after his 'little brother'.

"Do you really think that kid'll help?" Sakura asked skeptically, more to Sasuke than Naruto, as Naruto was already running.

She actually received an answer this time, although admittedly, it was only a shrug. Sasuke didn't run, but he did pick up the pace of his walk, causing Sakura to adjust her pace to match his.

Further ahead, Konohamaru swerved and Naruto followed, only to find himself in the huge garden of a not-so-huge house. Well, the house wasn't _tiny _but it wasn't a mansion either. The garden, on the other hand, was enormous and very healthy. He stopped a moment, to compare the size of the house to the garden and shook his head in bewilderment. Who the hell would want to use most of their property for gardening than for a larger house?

Konohamaru, apparently, did. "This is my house!" he boasted.

"Your house?" came a voice from somewhere close by. Even so, Naruto nearly jumped in surprise as his head swiveled towards a large tree near the wall. A moment later, a spiky-haired head appeared from behind its huge trunk, laughing.

"We're the ones who take care of it!" Another face popped out from the other side of the tree, just as Naruto's teammates caught up with them.

Izumo and Kotetsu's faces did not register in Sakura and Sasuke's mind as familiar, but with a gulp Naruto remembered them both to be examiners in the Chuunin Exam. Kotetsu, he remembered because the kunai thrown by the man had scared the shit out of him during the first test, and Izumo because Naruto was sure that he was being watched by the examiner. However, the two chuunins, if they recognized Naruto, did not show it.

"Excuse us!" Sakura called out to them, assuming that they were the people that Konohamaru had promised to lead them to. Even if they weren't, it was obvious that they were both ninjas from their hitai-ate and they looked to be around Kakashi's age.

"What?" Kotetsu asked as he stepped away from the tree, dragging his friend with him. Their hands were dusted with dirt, and they had obviously been gardening. Naruto gave them a curious look – he had no clue that they were related to Konohamaru in any way. They couldn't just be gardeners, because there was no such thing as a gardener/ninja. It seemed, actually, that they were the kid's caretakers. So what had happened to Konohamaru's parents…?

Confronted with two complete strangers, Sakura seemed to be at a loss as to what to say. She looked over at her teammates for help, but looked away quickly. Naruto was too brash and blunt with words – more likely than not, he'd get the chuunins annoyed. Sasuke, on the other hand, was aloof and did not seem ready to talk at all. Besides, she knew best that the Uchiha wasn't much of a people-person.

"They're tracking down a ghost!" Konohamaru exclaimed to the two chuunins.

Naruto opened his mouth to support that claim, but Sakura quickly interjected, all hesitation gone. "Well, we actually just wanted to know who Hatake Kakashi's teammates were…"

"A ghost?" Izumo echoed, mind still back on Konohamaru's exclaimation, looking blank. "Ghosts don't–"

"Oh, yeah, we knew Kakashi's teammates," Kotetsu said, cutting his friend off. He was apparently more used to Konohamaru's strange claims, and didn't believe them. "Rin, and Obito. They're both dead."

Sakura spun around, grinning, and Naruto punched the air, shrieking in triumph. Sasuke only slouched and scowled, trying to look as if he didn't know the people around him.

* * *

Eh heh. Shorter chapter than usual. But I finally updated! D; Soo sorry for the long wait! X.x See, I'm not quitting this story just yet!

…and I love Izumo and Kotetsu.


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